NEWBERRY — On December 16 the Smithsonian Museum’s Traveling Exhibit Crossroads: Change in Rural America will be on display at The Newberry Opera House.
In promotion of this exhibit, Heather Hawkins, ticketing and guest experience manager for the Opera House, invited Newberry County Council to attend.
“It is coming to the Opera House lobby, and we want to use this as kind of a year long kickoff conversation. What do we love about our small town? What do we want to take with us about our small town into the future? But, what do we need to be innovated about as we go forward,” Hawkins said. “I know these are conversations y’all have been having for years.”
The Exhibit will be in Newberry from December 16 until February 2, and Hawkins said it will fill up the lobby. The Opera House will be open during regular business hours, allowing people to view the exhibit at their own convenience.
Hawkins highlighted two main events that will take place during the exhibit. The first is on the opening day of the exhibit, on December 16 they will be showing the movie, “Newberry in Color” from 1948. This shows three young ladies that fly into the Newberry airport and go shopping downtown. According to Hawkins, “this is an amazing glimpse back in time and Downtown is bustling.”
That same day they will have Randy Cohen, vice president of Research and Policy at Americans for the Arts, the nation’s advocacy organization for the arts, and he will give a keynote address.
“Later in January we are going to have Tom Poland, he is an author, he does a lot of travel events and he’ll be doing two talks, Lost Traditions of the South and South Carolina Backroads,” Hawkins said.
Hawkins mentioned that there will not be a lot of items in the exhibit, but will mainly be photos and videos of people discussing why they live where they live.
“There is wonderful video in the exhibit about the time the lights first came on,” she said.
Other business
• Council approved a second reading of an ordinance that transfers Fee-In-Lieu of Tax treatment of existing machinery and equipment from Schweitzer-Mauduit International’s current location (Newberry Industrial Park) to its new location (Mid-Carolina Commerce Park).
• Council passed a resolution establishing no objection to close Cannon Creek Court (in the Newberry Industrial Park) to accommodate Samsung’s expansion plans.
• Council passed a resolution that extends the existing Komatsu fee agreement for an additional 10 years, making the entirety of the agreement 30 years.